ASUS ZenFone Zoom and ZenFone Max now available in the Philippines

Manila, Philippines (January 21, 2016) — ASUS starts 2016 with two incredible smartphones that answers the hunger for battery and quality camera with the ZenFone Zoom and ZenFone Max now available in stores.

ZenFone Zoom : #SeeTheWorldUpClose

Setting a new global benchmark as the world’s thinnest 3X optical-zoom smartphone, the ZenFone Zoom ups the game by elevating the user’s visual and photography experience with a 3X HOYA lens in an innovative 10-element lens arrangement for exceptional clarity and close-ups with up to 12X total magnification — features that allow you to see the world up close by enjoying a DSLR experience in the palm of your hand.

“We are thrilled to finally bring the ZenFone Zoom to Filipinos. The ZenFone Zoom revolutionizes smartphone photography in a way that cannot be matched by any other smartphone currently in the market. It puts professional, DSLR-quality photography within easier reach – so that Filipinos can all the more enjoy and indulge in the experience of taking photos with their mobile phones,” said ASUS Philippines Marketing Manager Jamie Zaldivar.

See the world up close: 3X optical zoom and OIS, 10-element lens, Real Tone flash and laser focus

ZenFone Zoom is the world’s thinnest smartphone optical-zoom smartphone, with a 13MP PixelMaster rear camera and 3X lens in a body that measures just 5mm at the edges. It features an innovative 10-element digital eye created by the optics experts at HOYA, with glass, synthetic and prismatic lenses are meticulously configured in a dual-prism periscope arrangement to maximize incoming light and capture the best possible photo quality. Built-in optical image stabilization (OIS) ensures sharper, steadier shots every time — even at maximum 3X optical magnification.

ASUS engineers have rotated ZenFone Zoom’s lens mechanism to create a compact, intricately-calibrated periscope-style layout. Coupled with a Panasonic SmartFSI® image sensor, ZenFone Zoom captures more light and more color — revealing detail and beauty in both natural and low-light compositions that other smartphone cameras will never see.

ZenFone Zoom’s design takes its cue from the look and feel of professional DSLR cameras, with dedicated buttons for shooting, recording and telephoto operations. Its strong unibody frame is precision-crafted to a metallic finish that’s cool and smooth to the touch, with a choice of premium Pure Black or sleek Ceramic White on the rear — and diamond-cut to create four stunning patterns across the back and sides. ZenFone Zoom even has an integrated a safety loop and many stylish strap options, for confident shooting from any angle.

The intuitive ZenUI Camera app makes it a cinch to capture professional-quality photographs. ASUS-exclusive Super Resolution mode applies multi-frame-fusion technology to create incredibly-detailed photos. Four high-resolution 13MP shots are fused to create a single image of with clarity that’s four times (4X) greater than a single shot. Night or day, ZenFone Zone captures more detail and less noise — and Super Resolution shots of up to 52MP.

ZenFone Zoom excels at macro photography, enabling extreme close-ups as near as 5cm (2in) to reveal new and unseen worlds of detail, and is ready to turn pro with one tap — with Manual mode allowing instant adjustment of shutter speed, exposure value, white balance, ISO and a host of other professional-grade settings.

ZenFone Zoom’s 64-bit quad-core Intel® Atom processor carefully balances brilliant performance and superb power efficiency, empowered by Intel®’s sophisticated 22nm Silvermont architecture. Intel®’s new Tri-Gate transistors have three times (3X) more surface area than planar transistors, enabling the flow of more electrons to increase computing performance and reduce power leakage. ZenFone Zoom also has a huge 4GB of fast dual-channel DDR3 RAM, and up to 128GB of storage as an option.

Featuring LTE Category 4+ for download speeds up to 250Mbit/s, and a 60ms touch-response time, ZenFone Zoom delivers fast, fluid experience anywhere; and with a high-capacity 3000mAh battery, users are able to work and play from dawn to dusk — and beyond. ZenFone Zoom also benefits from exclusive ASUS BoostMaster[1] technology for turbo-speed charging that takes the battery from zero to 60% in just 39 minutes.

ZenFone Zoom’s expansive 5.5-inch 1920×1080 Full HD IPS display offers wide 178-degree viewing angles, and a fantastic 403ppi pixel density to render every image in eye-popping detail. The display includes exclusive ASUS TruVivid technology, which seamlessly transforms the conventional four-layer design into an innovative two-layer construction with full lamination. Fusing the cover-glass and touch-panel layers eliminates the air gap, bringing everything closer to the user’s touch.

The Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 display offers twice (2X) the drop-damage resistance of its predecessor, a 2.5X increase in retained strength and is 85% less likely to break in daily use — making it safer and stronger than ever before.

The highlight of the new ZenFone Max (ZC550KL) is its incredibly-long-lasting, high-capacity 5000mAh lithium-polymer battery that gives users an unprecedented amount of mobile freedom. With capabilities of staying longer than most smartphones, the ZenFone Max has a standby mode of 38 days, or 37.5 hours of 3G talk time, or 32.5 hours of Wi-Fi Browsing, or 22.6 hours of video playback.

ZenFone Max has a bright and clear 5.5-inch HD IPS display with wide viewing angles, protected by the latest Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 for unrivalled scratch-resistance, strength and everyday durability. On top of this, its back cover stands out with its leather finish texture for maximum grip. At the heart of ZenFone Max is a powerful yet power-efficient 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor with up to 2GB of RAM. ZenFone Max also features 13MP Rear /5MP Front PixelMaster cameras with a wide f/2.0 aperture. The rear camera also boasts laser auto-focus for sharp, near-instant shots with 0.03 focusing speed and dual LED tone flash for natural photos under the dark.

ZenFone Max also functions as a powerbank through its USB OTG capabilities to charge other phones and micro usb devices– a very useful feature when outside and no power outlets are available.

[1] The 18W BoostMaster adapter is included only with the 2.3GHz/4GB ZenFone Zoom model.

Availability and Pricing

ZenFone Zoom (ZX551ML) and ZenFone Max (ZC550KL) are now available in all authorized re-sellers nationwide for PHP 26,995.00 and PHP 8,495.00 respectively.

Author

Irwin Allen Rivera

Irwin Allen Rivera loves his wife's cooking so much he's now twice the man he used to be. His English essay won a Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature in 2012. His philosophical-horror story appeared in Philippine Speculative Fiction 8 (2013). He was managing editor and lead writer of Sites and Symbols 2 (2005), a coffee-table book about buildings in UP Diliman - his alma mater (BA Philosophy; MA Creative Writing continuing). He worked at the UP Diliman Information Office before shifting to web content writing. His sudden fiction, "Notwithstanding Pigs," initially a Friendster testimonial, appeared in Philippines Graphic (2006) and in Very Short Stories for Harried Readers (2007). He used to write for www.technoodling.net.